# mandiant/capa

The FLARE team's open-source tool to identify capabilities in executable files.

Repository: https://github.com/mandiant/capa
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/capa
Homepage: https://mandiant.github.io/capa/
Language: Python
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: malware-analysis, reverse-engineering, binary-analysis, threat-intelligence, gsoc-2026
Last push: 2026-08-26T12:44:48+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 87/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 65, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2269, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 154, "gap_med": 42.0, "n_releases_24m": 11}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6156, forks 718 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:36.691130+00:00)

## What it is
capa is Mandiant FLARE's open-source tool that identifies capabilities in executable files (PE, ELF, .NET, shellcode) by matching expert-written rules against code-level features. It reports behaviors like persistence, C2 communication, and defense evasion, mapped to MITRE ATT&CK and MBC references.

## Use cases
- triage unknown binaries for malicious capabilities
- identify what a suspicious executable can do
- map malware behavior to MITRE ATT&CK techniques
- hunt for novel malware across a file corpus
- guide reverse engineering of an unknown binary
- analyze sandbox reports for capabilities

## When to choose
- you need code-level behavioral analysis beyond byte-pattern YARA matching
- you want ATT&CK/MBC-mapped capability reports for triage
- you work in IDA Pro, Binary Ninja, or Ghidra and want integrated results

## When to avoid
- you only need static byte-signature scanning like YARA
- you need dynamic runtime behavior monitoring rather than static analysis
- you need full decompilation rather than capability identification

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: reverse-engineering, security, cli, parser
- domain: security, reverse-engineering, developer-tools
- platform: windows, python, cli
- tags: malware-analysis, binary-analysis, mitre-attack, threat-intelligence, ida-plugin, ghidra, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- mandiant/capa (main) score 87

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:36.691130+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:47:29.942491+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mandiant/capa (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:36.691130+00:00, sha 6132eb512b92)
  - homepage: https://mandiant.github.io/capa/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:18.918166+00:00, sha 133586fbe581)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.